Thanks guys,. Im gonna add updates daily or at least several times a week. I think there is a way to add your email address so that you get update notifications in your email. Its at the bottom of the page.

Im drafting now for a week of Indian cooking. Most importantly Im gonna post tutorials there on how to make Indian breads such as parantha,chappity and even the elusive puri, Should be interesting. Fun stuff.

Yeah lets plan on something. I have a lot of people already asking me to do a homebrewing thing. I figure I can show a stove top extract method one day (what I usually do) then show how the big dogs do it by interviewing you and showing the Brutus 10. I figure Ill do a whole beverage thing that week.

Thang long is gonna let me come in and do an interview and take lots of pictures there too. Im gonna save that for Vietnamese cooking week.

I was at my brothers for TG. It was really good they did a Jerk turkey, a grilled Turkey and a regular oven turkey. All good but I am a less is more guy when it comes to turkey. I prefer an oven roasted turkey over any other way. I wouldn't dare mention that over at the Brethren.

One thing that was funny is everyone was saying "butterflied" instead of spatchcock. They are very conservative on that side of the river. I call it the old country. They just call it butterflied to avoid saying cock. Thats just how repressed they are.

Love the new blog...too many of your recipes/pictures/etc were buried in hundred-page threads like this, this will make them better organized.

The central European food looks great, I may have to hunt down a bottle of hungarian wine or slivovitz and revisit that stuff! And Indian bread pointers will be rather useful, I've fallen into a rut with chapatis...water, salt, atta, and kalonji mixed and rolled then baked in a dry skillet. They make great edible "spoons" so to speak which is their primary function but they aren't fantastic on their own. Healthy though, I suppose!

Oh yeah. You will love the Indian bread stuff I learned. I learned a lot over the last year or so. After months of begging at our local Indian Restaurant they finally agreed and took me in the back to show me how to make their parantha bread. Ill bet it was mostly to shut me the F up.

Ill be doing the first Indian food week on the blog soon. Italian now, then some holiday pie stuff then Indian food.

Wait till you see the tandoor oven Im working on. Its sitting now though.

Very nice. I always lean more towards indian bread than rice, but I like both. Although in 15 minutes I'll be starting my weekly lesson in Indian classical music, which has been consuming more of my time of late. I'd best go make sure I'm tuned up properly...I wonder if I could get a gig at a local Indian joint...how about 1 samosa for each drut gat I play?

Went with my very first midnight smoke...and it was a success. I loaded a 7lb Boston Butt, (rubbed down with a homeade dry rub) on my WSM at midnight last Saturday. I used a full lit chimney over a full unlit charcoal pan (minion method). Also added 4 large chunks of (2) Oak, Apple and Cherry. I monitored the smoker until I stabilized @ 220F then went to catch some shuteye.

I awoke at 7am to find the smoker at 219F ...no that's not a typo. I lost a degree overnight... but I don't really know how much actual fluctuation occurred overnight. I added a couple more large chunks of wood and had to add two more half chimneys (lit) at 9am and 1pm to keep the temp around 220ish. I applied a mop sauce every so often to help flavor the meat throughout the smoke after I awoke. The meat was pulled after 15hrs on the smoker and wrapped in foil and towels and placed in a coller for two hours.

The meat was smoky, tender and juicy. It could be cut with a fork but still had some resistance to it. The aroma was fabulous and the taste was my best yet.

Choice brisket packer (11.5#) lightly trimmed and seasoned with salt and pepper. I injected it with a fish-sauce, soy sauce, salt, sugar and garlic solution.

Went on the smoker around 1430 at 150 with a remote temp probe to monitor internal temps. I had temporary amnesia and raised the smoke to 200 instead of 250 which is my usual sweet-spot. It went into the stall around midnight but no foiling was done at that time. The temps held steady at 200 until around 0930 when I notice the internal temp was up to 167. Feeling confident fell back asleep until noon.

Aargh! There was a cold snap and the smoker had dropped to 150 when I dragged my sorry ass out of bed. Internal temp was 150! So I pulled it out of the smoker and realized my brisket was far from done. The next step was the Texas Crutch and the brisket was tightly foiled then placed back into the smoker. The temp was raised to 300 and the brisket hit an internal temp of 190 after about 4 hours. It was pulled from the smoker and wrapped in two towels and placed in an unlit oven. Three hours later it was back at 150.

Removed from foil and the brisket deemed ready the point was separated from the flat and set aside. I cut the point into large cubes about 1.5" and re-seasoned with some spices. Back into the smoker at 250 for 6 hours. During that time the "burnt ends" were stirred and some sauce added towards the end.

OMG burnt ends are something to behold- never had them this way before and have to say if you haven't tried this then you are missing something special!

That was one long cooking session at 36+ hours. I will do things differently next time...

Logged

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. -Richard P. Feynman

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